What To Do If You Miss An Insanity Workout

What To Do If You Miss An Insanity Workout

Have you ever wonderedwhat to do if you miss an Insanity workout (or P90X, or Combat, or Insert Your Program Here)?

It happens. Life happens. Sometimes people miss workouts (Hopefully not!!) But if it does, this article will explain what do if you miss an Insanity workout. And also what to do if you miss a few days? Or what about an entire week? Oh no!

I’ve had people ask me about this often, so I decided to write a blog about it. Make sure you read it from START to FINISH. There is a very important warning message at the end.

What To Do If You Miss An Insanity Workout

(Just replace “Insanity” with whatever fitness program you’re doing)

What If I Miss 1 Day?

If you miss one day of your Insanity workout then you have 2 options.

Option 1 is to make the day you missed your rest day for the week. So say you missed your workout on Thursday your normal rest day is on Sundays. What you would do is, on Friday, do whatever workout you missed. Then on Saturday, do whatever workout you would typically be doing on Friday (since you’re a day behind), and on Sunday do whatever workout you would typically be doing on Saturday.

Then on Monday you’ll be right back on schedule and you can continue on with your normal Insanity workout schedule. Make sense? I hope so!

Option 2 is to forget about it and just move on while sticking with your usual schedule. So with our example above, you missed your Thursday workout. On Friday you would do your normal Friday workout. On Sunday you would still have a rest day. This is really just if you absolutely cannot work out on that normal rest day.

I recommend going for option 1 so you’re not missing any of the workouts!

What If I Miss 2 to 6 Days?

If you miss 2 to 6 days, then you have 3 options.

Option 1 - You can forget it about it (like in option 2 above) and just move on with your typical workout schedule. I wouldn’t recommend this if you miss over 2 days.

Option 2 - You can do the workouts you missed during your recovery week to make up for them then.

Option 3 – You can re-do the entire week. This option is best if you miss 3 or more workouts.

At the end of the day, it’s your program so choose the option that’s best for you. I lean toward option 3 simply because I want people to get the most out of their Insanity program and you get the best results when you stick with the plan! Let’s talk about that a bit more..

Why you really shouldn’t miss an Insanity workout.

Admittedly, the sky is not going to fall in if you miss just one workout and make it up with your rest day to get back on track as described above. BUT (and this is a HUGE BUT) the problem is that skipping one workout (even just one) increases the chance that you miss another workout!

It’s a terrible snowball effect that I’ve experienced myself! One day turns into two days, which turns into week. Suddenly several weeks have passed & you’re trying to find the umph to start Insanity all over again. Don’t let it happen to you. As times passes, you could have completed Insanity. But instead of crossing the finishing line…flexing in the mirror…or picking out new swimwear…..you’re looking at your donut….the one on your plate and the one around your stomach.

As soon as you start skipping workouts (even if just here & there), your mind starts justifying reasons why it’s ok to miss more. Ultimately, there will always be excuses why we “can’t” workout. You have to put all excuses to the side for 60 (or 90 days) and just make it happen.

If by chance you must miss a workout, just MAKE SURE you get right back on track with your regular workout schedule ASAP. That way you don’t throw away all your hard work.

The key that I learned while I was doing Insanity for the first time (and prior to that P90X) , was that sometimes you have plan your schedule around your workouts instead of the other way around!

Sound drastic? Hey…how bad do you want it?

I hope I’ve answered the question about what to do if you miss an Insanity workout!

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About Alice Dymally

I’ve had a journey of ups & downs with fitness. In 2009 I gained 50 lbs with a pregnancy, reaching my heaviest weight which was 215, then 200 postpartum. I eventually lost all of the weight & then some (65 lbs!) Since then, my weight has fluctuated. I strive for fitness rather than a number on a scale. My current Fitness Ambition is to get back to the best shape of my life! What's your Fitness Ambition?

Comments

Thank you so much for this info…..I was stressed to the max when I couldnt complete my work out….It wasn’t lack of trying or even wanting to…..I just got off midnights and had to be up for another job in an hour and a half….I tried to do the work out but my form was way off and I had a feeling I would injure myself so I used my better judgement….its been eating away at me that I missed the one day. On one of my days up I think Im going to try and double up on a work out….do one in the a.m and one in the p.m…..is that doable?
Thank u again
Angie

Thanks so much for this…I need this! I’m traveling to Indoneisa for two weeks and there’s a 12 hour time change as well as a super long plane ride, etc and I know I’m going to miss a couple…I had to miss one today because I was moving from my apartment back home for the summer. I think I’ll just try and skip my rest day and consider this my rest day and keep plowing through Insanity and Hip Hop Abs. I’m only on week 2, but I’m feeling pretty good about it all! I am determined to come from those two weeks in Indonesia (making it 4 weeks on both programs) and just look like DYNAMITE. Thanks for the inspiration and the reassurance that it’s not the end of the world if you can’t make every work out!

Hey so today was my first day doing insanity and I started the month out ten days late and I’m deciding if I should keep moving on the schedule ten days late or when I finish the schedule , do ten more days extra for the days I miss in the beginning of the month ? ? Any Suggestions. ?

Congratulations! So you started on July 10, right? Just start on day 1 of the calendar & follow it exactly. (disregard the date of the month. won’t matter so basically you follow the calendar exactly, starting wit the day 1 workout & you will finish in 9 weeks in the middle of Sept. Hopefully I understood your question correctly. Make sense?

I am just about to start Insanity, I’m not incredibly fit and usually go to the gym 3/4 times a week. However due to Holiday’s/work commitments I have been unable to go for the past few weeks… Do you think it would be best to go back to the gym for a while first or go straight into insanity?

Good question. I had actually did P90X right before Insanity & it was a great transition. But I’ve seen some people complete Insanity after being sedentary for more than a few weeks. It’s a big feat but doable. So I’d say go for it! Go ahead & start – Just modify when you need to & don’t stop. Very quickly you’ll probably start to notice improvement. Let me know how it goes!

I just started on Insanity this week and I’m aching all over! After reading your post, I think I’m going to take a day off tomorrow and catch up on Sunday. I feel that the aching muscles are preventing me from being on form!

I hear you Khryz! I definitely remember being sore in the beginning. Especially my calves for some reason! Lol. But it goes away! I also started using the P90X Recovery drink around that time & still do. It seems to help after a really grueling workout. Enjoy the rest of the program. I’m sure you’ll have amazing results!

I’m currently on week 4 of Insanity and haven’t missed a workout yet, however during my recovery week next week I’ve now got an opportunity to go to a 4 day festival where I will be camping from Thursday til Monday which of course runs into my more intense second month. If I can I’ll squeeze in a recovery workout on the Thursday so it may only be potentially 3 days missed. My worry is that obviously at a festival I may drink a little and not be as healthy as I normally would be which may decrease my performance for month 2. I dislike the idea of starting up again during a mid week as I really like the Monday start day routine and Sunday rest as that works best for me. Would you suggest I skip the recovery days I’ve missed and start afresh on Tuesday (and maybe skipping a rest day or just skipping 1 Max workout and maybe do it at the end) or re-starting the recovery week?

Hey Natasha! I see your dilemma. It seems like you’re really crushing it right now! I probably would not re-do the recovery week, so you don’t lose that momentum. I like your idea of cutting the days missed during the recovery week down to 3, & starting back on the Tuesday, skipping just 1 max workout & making it up on the end. I’d expect you’d still have amazing results with that! Enjoy your trip! Hopefully not too much! Haha. Liking your results so far?

Thanks! I think thats the best plan too. I’m loving the results, I’ve lost about 6-7 pounds so far and I’m really feeling the difference in my fitness, I feel stronger and I’m noticing I’m not so exhausted now by the end of each workout. I’d like to ideally lose another 20 pounds so I’ve got a way to go and will carry on with a second round but probably 4 or 5 times a week instead of 6 until I get down to my desired weight. I’ve now got road trip in the pipeline around Europe in a few weeks which will result in a week missed so I’ll have to start up again when I get back. The main thing I worry about is decreasing my fitness if I stop inbetween so the Max month is a nightmare to get back into, but I’ll have to just push through!

Hi Alice
thanks so much for this post. As you mentioned life happens! I was happily in month 2, getting my butt kicked everyday, then I had to leave town for a couple of weeks because of a death of a close friend of mine. It’s been hard to get back into it. Looking at the calendar, I would have been done on July 21st and here we are on the 22nd.

Would you suggest starting month 2 over again, or just starting from the second week where I left off? I know i shouldn’t beat myself up about it, but I can’t help but feel like I lost my momentum and won’t have the results that were so close…….

hey Christina. Sorry for your loss. I would just start month 2 over again. Looking at it from the longer term perspective, it’s not really a set back. you’ll finish a littler later, but once you would have been done with the program, I’m sure you would have still been working out or doing something to maintain your results anyway, so it’s all good!! re-doing month 2 will allow you to finish in peak condition. good luck!

I get up and run 2-4 miles every morning… Then I carry on with my day.. I might skip one workout on Tuesday so I just do Tuesdays workout on Wednesday and Wednesdays workout on Thursday and so on… Ultimately doing Saturdays workout on Sunday… Now is what I’m doing bad ???

I’m up to day 52 and I’ve not missed a single session. Quite an achievement for someone that suffers from severe IBS w/patches of crohns. Annoyingly, I’ve felt awful all day and cannot imagine doing my workout tonight :/ it’s really annoying but it can’t be helped.

I really hope I feel better tomorrow because this has put me in a right bad mood :3

I am in week 4 of the Insanity work out (love it by the way) and am leaving to go camping for 5 days (Sun -Thurs) so I will be missing 4 workouts. Next Monday starts my “Recovery Week”. Should I just finish out the Recovery week when I get back (basically only doing two days of the Recovery Week on Fri and Sat) and pick up with Month 2 as scheduled or should I redo week 4 and then do the the Recovery Week so I am better prepared for Month 2?? I am worried if I miss 4 days, only do 2 days of the Recovery week and then get right back into it with Month 2 schedule I might be set back a little. Any advice would greatly help! Thank you!!

I just looked at the Core Cardio and Balance workout and I think if I just redo the entire Cardio Recovery Week I should be good to go and back on track for Month 2. I was under the impression since it was called “Cardio Recovery” week it wouldn’t be challenging…not sure what I was thinking since this IS the Insanity work out! Anyway, if you would just let me know if this is the appropriate course of action I would appreciate it.

I did insanity once before. Now I’m having the hardest time getting back into it. Do you follow the nutrition guide? I’m not doing so this time around and I feel guilty. I know that the first time I did insanity my metabolism sky rocketed! I lost 7 pounds in 2 weeks. I think that I’m feeling less motivated this time around because I fear that I won’t see results as quickly. Will I see weight loss result without following the nutrition guide as long as I have a heathy diet? It’s just so hard to schedule my meals this time around.

Hey Rob, yes as long as you’re eating clean you’ll see results. I did Insanity right after P90X so I actually continued on with the P90X nutrition guide while I was doing Insanity. It worked out really well for me. I know what you mean about the 2nd time around! For some reason it can be harder to stick to. For me, I think it was the first time around I wanted to prove to myself I could do it. The second time around, I didn’t quite have as much motivation. I am doing Focus T25 right now. New program & loving it! Got my mojo back

Hello, I started insanity 3 weeks ago. Since ive been going out of town most weekends, i pretty much dont do my workout on saturdays, but i start on monday by doing saturdays excercise, and on tuesday i start with mondays excercise. is that right?

Oh dang, sorry to hear about that. It really depends on how your body feels. If you don’t feel like you’ve backslid too much or if you haven’t been eating poorly, you’d probably be fine to pick up at the start of month 2. But if you feel like you need to build some momentum, you could start at week 3, do a couple days of recovery week workouts, then jump into month 2! How were your month 1 results?

i skipped friday workout then i it on saturday, and saturday workout done on sunday then i took a rest on monday and proceeded the week starting from tuesday..
p.s. ”sunday is my usual rest day”
can i continue with monday as my rest day?

I missed one day but continued to work out like the week was planned. I didn’t even think to just push everything a day behind. Now my question is should I work on sunday and just miss this weeks rest day and follow the program that way. or just stick to the program from here on out like I have been?

Hey Mayla. Can you push your off day back 2 days? In other words, pick up where you left off, do your 2 missed workouts, and your new day off would be 2 days later than normal. Your day off would stay on this new day for the last couple of weeks you have left. OR if that’s not an option, you can just make up 1 of the missed workout on your current day off. And not make up the 2nd one. You’ll be good

Thanks for the post! I’ve just finished week 4 (so grateful for recovery week next week!) But 2 weeks from today, I’m getting a minor medical procedure done, and I’m not sure how I’m going to feel after…There might be some pain, and I’ll probably have to take a few days off (definitely the day of the procedure since I can’t drink anything before and no doubt will not be up to doing Max Interval Circuit after!) I’ve been stressing about not being able to do the 60 days straight through, and worried about how long it will take me to feel up to going back – as well as whether I should backtrack a bit. I’m not concerned about picking it back up again, I’m a little (ok, a lot) obsessive about exercise (currently doing Insanity + at least one more workout, often 2, every day, and I haven’t taken a day off since August, not even when I was sick…) I’ll at least redo the week, depending on how long it takes me to feel up to snuff. I’m also wondering if I should redo a week of month 1 first. Any thoughts on whether it’s okay to take several days off (of Insanity – I will definitely do some exercise, even if it’s just yoga, pilates, or going on a walk), then go straight back into month 2, or if I should backtrack a little further? Thanks!!

Hey Alyssa! I see you’re not playing around! Lol (Doin workouts on top of Insanity – that’s the real deal). You’ll be fine taking a few days off – especially how active you are. Regarding where you should pick back up – whether to repeat 1 week or the whole month – I’d say to listen to your body. There’s no right or wrong. I’d start with the 1 week & if you feel you can keep up, then move into month 2. Hope all goes well with your procedure